<Begin Segment 22>

TI: And the reason he said that, why, why?

SK: Because it would be a loss of face for him. Mission unaccomplished. And so he says, "I, I just can't go home because I'm not, I'm here to, as a substitute for Takayama-san." So I said finally, "What if I got you a job in Tokyo here and then you can look in on me as much as you want, make sure I'm all right and then you report to the farm." And he thought that was all right. So I got him a job in Tokyo and in fact, to this day he's still in Tokyo because he married a Tokyo girl, no kids. But for the past twenty-eight years he's been elected Tokyo City Assembly Member. And having served over twenty, twenty-five years, he's been presented to the Imperial Family along with other old time government workers. And he has been to the United States roughly eight, nine, ten times. He's falling in love with the United States and he's covered every state with maybe exception of maybe four or five more states to go. And he's told me -- well to go back a bit. After the war, he suddenly writes to me and says, "We would like to come visit you, Takayama and Hirano."

TI: And what, what year is this?

SK: This is 1989.

TI: Okay.

SK: So in 1989, those two men came to Spokane and stayed at my house oh, so many days and during which time, we first, my wife Miya and I drove him to, to Idaho so he, he could go home and say you've been to Idaho. And then we took him down to Oregon so he, he could say he'd been to Oregon. And in Oregon, we found the location of the camp Commandant of the POW camp in New Guinea. He's a retired banker. So we arranged a get together and they have a very nostalgic, teary, teary reunion between the camp Commandant and, and a former prisoner. And during that time while we were driving here and there, I suddenly notice the fact that both of them are clicking their cameras. I said, I looked out, "What are you doing, what picture are you taking? There's nothing out there?" He said, "That's what we're taking a picture of. To show our people in Japan that, that this country is so large that we can travel for time after time, mile after mile, no houses, no buildings, nobody around, just wide open space to show them that this country is so large that if the war lords had ever come to the United States and, and driven around the countryside they would for, for themselves see how big this country is." They would never have dared to attack. He said, "Like a mosquito stinging a big giant."

TI: That's interesting.

SK: That's the comparison that these two men made see, while we were driving them around. And he says, "This country is so large that automobiles can speed so fast that, that the click, click, click noise that we hear are bugs being smashed against the windshield in different colors and that's a sight that we would never see in Japan." He says, I said, "What are you pointing?" He's pointing at the windshield with all the bugs being smashed against the windshield as we speed along the highways. A sight unknown to the average Japanese.

TI: And so a real special relationship started back in that New Guinea camp.

SK: Right. And that's the, while we, they were in Spokane, I got, say, I thought Sam Grashio, Colonel Grashio is in my Spokane chapter of The Retired Officer's Association whom I know, whom I got into the chapter. He's a former POW of the Japanese because I, I had spoken to the former POW group in Spokane. So I know Sam. And so I called Sam up and I said, "How would you like to meet your counterpart. He's a Japanese prisoner of ours that I interrogated in New Guinea." Oh, he was all for it. So I said, "Okay, you bring your wife and come on over." So they did and, and he said, "I'm going to bring a newspaper reporter," and that turned out to be Rebecca Nappi who today is retired. But she's a, a periodic guest editorial writer for the Spokesman Review. And it's her article, she came over and covered the meeting between these two former prisoners, for which I interpreted, and the article that she wrote up is a copy that I will send you which is referred to in that Unsung Heroes. It just says Rebecca Nappi at the very bottom, I think.

TI: Yeah that's, that's a good story. I mean it seems that it's a wonderful example of promoting understanding between cultures even though we were at war, you were able to bring these, these different parties together.

SK: And apparently I'm the only one who ever had an experience like that, that a former prisoner interrogated overseas during war time, saw fit to save his money for so many years and then come over at his own expense to visit me.

TI: Well you...

SK: From '44 to 1989.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.